Following are a few examples of how taking various vitamin supplements can be detrimental to your health.
Vitamin A
It is a well known fact that too much vitamin A can cause deformities in unborn children. For this reason, there is a law prohibiting the addition of this vitamin to foods. Yet this law does not apply to animal feeds, even though it is well established that vitamin A accumulates in the liver of farm animals. Pregnant women are usually warned not to consume liver in order to avoid potential damage to their babies. If consuming extra vitamin A is considered dangerous for pregnant women or unborn babies, it cannot be considered safe for the rest of the population either. Vitamin B This is not a single vitamin, but rather an array of substances that have been categorized within the vitamin B series. Following are some of the health issues related to three of the substances within this group: •
Vitamin B3
More commonly knows as niacin, vitamin B3 is one of the most popular B-vitamins. Now added to a large number of processed foods, including breakfast cereals, niacin is not without risks. After large doses of niacin (3g) had been given to patients suffering from psychiatric diseases, many developed hepatitis and other liver problems. Among other symptoms of niacin poisoning are hot flushes, itching skin, arrhythmia and nervousness. Illegal use of niacin in meats such as hamburger has often led to similar symptoms. The main reason for adding niacin to meat is to color it red and give it the appearance of being fresh. If you experience symptoms such as hot flashes after eating meat, then you are likely to have been poisoned with niacin. •
Vitamin B6
Also known as pyridoxin, vitamin B6 is a combination of six substances. It has often been used as a drug to treat depression, pre-menstrual tension, schizophrenia and child asthma. It was considered safe until 1983 when scientists discovered a syndrome related to circulatory problems in the hands and feet of a number of patients who were given large doses of vitamin B6. The patients developed symptoms similar to the ones caused by the drug thalidomide. Some mothers who had taken large amounts of B6 during their pregnancy also reported deformities in their children’s bodies. It took a long time before the nerve damage was linked to vitamin B6 poisoning. As it turned out, many patients who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis also had been poisoned by vitamin B6. There are many unsuspecting people currently taking vitamin B6 without any awareness of the risks involved. •
Vitamin B9
This vitamin is perhaps better known as folic acid. It is a common food additive, and potentially one of the most harmful ones. After researchers first discovered that people in malaria regions tended to have a deficiency of folic acid, they gave them this B vitamin in the belief that it would make their immune systems more resistant to the malaria virus. The children who were given this vitamin felt worse after the treatment, and were found to have much higher concentrations of malaria-causing agents in their blood than before taking the vitamin. The explanation for this phenomenon is that the malaria virus requires large amounts of folic acid in order to spread. People who have a deficiency in this vitamin are being naturally protected from malaria infection. After discovering that children who took folic acid developed malaria, a British doctor in Kenya gave folic acid to one group of monkeys and compared them with another group of monkeys who were folic acid deficient. All the monkeys given folic acid supplements became infected with malaria, whereas the ones with “abnormally low” levels stayed healthy. Over 40 percent of the world’s population is threatened by malaria today, which is no longer restricted to developing countries. Malaria is rapidly becoming the leading cause of death in the world. One can only imagine the disastrous consequences that may have arisen from giving millions of healthy people vitamins to help their assumed vitamin deficiency. What is considered to be a vitamin deficiency for one person may be a life-saving response for another person.
Vitamin C
The most popular of all vitamins is ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. A deficiency of vitamin C is believed to cause hemorrhages, anemia, scurvy (damage of blood vessels), and to slow wound healing. It is, in fact, very easy to cure scurvy with red peppers, citrus fruits or cranberries, all of which contain high concentrations of vitamin C. Since the Hungarian scientist Szent Gyoerkyi identified vitamin C in oranges to be an effective substance for curing scurvy, it became a common assumption that vitamin C and orange juice must have the same benefits. But as it turned out, scurvy cannot be cured by vitamin C alone. Regardless of how large a dosage of vitamin C you use, the blood vessels will remain damaged. By contrast, eating a few oranges or red peppers cures scurvy quickly, without a trace of damage remaining. Fruits that are rich in vitamin C contain another ingredient that is known as vitamin C2. Scurvy can only be cured if vitamin C and vitamin C2 are taken together. When Gyoerkyi studied vitamin C, he included both compounds (C+C2). But as the years passed, the scientific community began omitting C2, and today there is very little awareness of it. When vitamins became popular in the United States, there was a sudden jump in the number of newly born babies developing scurvy. It had previously been thought that scurvy had been eradicated a long time ago. As this mysterious development was investigated, it was discovered that the mothers of the affected babies had taken extra vitamin C preparations (without C2) in the belief that it was good for their babies. Faced with the supplemental dosages of vitamin C, the mothers’ bodies started eliminating more of it than they ingested. When the babies were born they also continued removing whatever vitamin C they had received from the mother, because this is what they had learned to do while in the womb. Since their baby food did not contain significant amounts of vitamin C, they soon developed the dangerous baby scurvy. The body of an adult who consumes vitamin C regularly may eventually produce a similar response. response. They may even develop scurvy because the body becomes programmed to eliminate vitamin C faster and in larger quantities than it is ingested. It is not uncommon for adults who have been taking vitamin C regularly to develop further complications if they suddenly stop taking it. The November 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that according to new research, older women with diabetes who take high doses of vitamin C for the sake of their hearts may be doing more harm than good. The study, which followed nearly 2,000 postmenopausal women with diabetes for 15 years, found that those who took heavy doses of vitamin C supplements – 300 milligrams a day or more – were approximately twice as likely to die of heart disease or stroke compared with women who took no supplemental vitamin C. Interestingly, those with a high intake of vitamin C from natural foods did not increase their risk of death from cardiovascular causes.
Vitamin D
Calciferol, known as vitamin D, is not a vitamin in the sense that, unlike other vitamins, the body is capable of producing it. With the help of UV light from the sun, the body synthesizes it from cholesterol in the human skin. Vitamin D, which acts more like a hormone than a vitamin, facilitates the absorption and utilization of calcium and phosphorus, necessary for maintaining strong bones and teeth. Although vitamin D levels cannot be influenced through diet, the nutritional textbooks indicate 2.5 micrograms as the daily requirement of this vitamin for adults. Breast milk is considered to have deficiencies in vitamin D, implying that nature made a crucial mistake when it invented breast milk. Mothers are warned that, without taking extra amounts of this important vitamin, their babies could risk contracting rickets or developing bone deformities. Yet mothers are rarely informed about the risks involved when they overuse vitamin D. Vitamin D poisoning leads to something very similar to rickets. Dr. Ernst Lindner, of the University of Giessen in Germany, has warned that if large amounts of vitamin D are given to a person, calcium is removed from the bones. He also states that it is very risky to add vitamin D to food. Bone deformation is more likely to occur in babies who are not breast-fed. Until the vitamin D pill came on the market, rickets in babies was effectively treated with breast milk. Nature deemed it necessary to supply mother’s milk with only very small amounts of vitamin D. Studies have shown that the vitamin D content in mother’s milk does not increase when the mother takes vitamin D supplements. This implies that a mother’s body filters out vitamin D to protect the baby from being poisoned by overdoses of this vitamin. A baby’s body easily synthesizes vitamin D from sunlight once it is exposed to it. It is, therefore, unnecessary to have this vitamin present in the mother's milk. The major cause of vitamin D deficiency among babies is keeping them in dark rooms with little or no natural light. But even with less than adequate sun exposure, they are still capable of absorbing sufficient amounts of calcium from the blood that are necessary for the building of healthy bones. What Constitutes a Vitamin Deficiency? The vitamin euphoria has emerged in spite of the fact that there are no reliable methods to determine if or when someone is suffering from a vitamin deficiency. In view of the harmful effects caused by supplemental vitamin intake, it is likely that a deficiency, if it really exists, is either caused by an overtaxed digestive system or by overdosing the body with vitamins. Blood vessel wall congestion and intestinal problems inhibit vitamins from reaching the cells, tissues, organs and systems in the body. It is erroneous to assume that by taking extra vitamins the body will automatically make use of them. We simply do not know how much of the vitamin intake will leave the stomach unharmed, in what amounts the vitamins are going to be digested, and to what extent they are likely to be absorbed by the blood and the body’s cells. There are no two people on the planet with exactly the same vitamin requirements and absorption rates. What may be normal for one person may not be normal for another, which makes the “standardized vitamin requirements for all” questionable, if not potentially harmful.